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Would knowing the calorie count make you turn down these mini doughnuts in the Starbucks case? That's the big question when it comes to laws that mandate nutritional labelling on restaurant items. (MARIO TAMA / GETTY IMAGES)

New York City restaurant chains have been posting menu calorie counts since a 2008 bylaw went into effect, but has it had an impact on consumer choices?

The question has suddenly become important in Toronto, thanks to a recommendation this week from Dr. David McKeown, the city’s medical officer of health, that the city create a bylaw requiring chain restaurants to put sodium and calorie counts on their menus.

But Rick Sampson, president of the New York State Restaurant Association, thinks the forced restaurant menu labelling in New York — which doesn’t go as far as the disclosure McKeown recommended — comes down to a lot of over-regulation, with little to show for it.

“I think if you talk to most quick-service restaurants, they would tell you there’s been little or no impact’’ on the choices people make, he told the Star in a phone interview. “I think of a line ... ‘A sure cure for a headache is decapitation, but I don’t recommend it.’ That’s what the government does — they go over the top.

“Unfortunately, and we tried to explain this to the mayor of New York, this (mandatory menu labeling) is not the answer. The answer really is educating the consumer at a young age, and that should be coming through our schools.’’

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He said ultimately, people “are going to buy and eat what they want. ... When was the last time someone put a gun to your head and forced you into McDonald’s?’’

There was a huge cost for chain eateries — all chains with more than 15 restaurants had to comply — to change their signage, which was more expensive than getting their menu items analyzed, Sampson said.

He also scoffed at the city’s ban on 16-ounce soft drinks and high-calorie drinks that, in a move driven by Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s concern about obesity levels, was imposed last year.

“Now they’re going to force customers to drink less soda,’’ said Sampson. “Who in the hell is government to tell a consumer what they should or should not drink?”

Sampson points to one study done in 2009 by researchers at the Yale School of Management and New York University, which found that calorie labels at fast food chains increased awareness of calorie count among 1,156 adult customers surveyed, but didn’t have much impact on their choices.

However, a 2009 study by New York City’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which involved more than 20,000 customers at fast food restaurants, showed the opposite: It found that more customers bought lower-calorie options after the labelling came in.

New York’s bylaw will be superseded by President Barack Obama’s health care law when it goes into full effect. That law will require all U.S. restaurants with 20 or more locations to post calorie counts.

But Obama’s law still doesn’t go as far as McKeown would like. He wants every chain with 10 or more restaurants across Canada to list calorie and sodium counts on menus. He’d like to see this enacted at the provincial level, but if the legislature won’t do it, he thinks the city should.

Many Canadian chains already post specific nutritional breakdowns of menu items, including fat and sodium content, on their websites.

The Keg Steakhouse & Bar does this. And while he supports customers having access to all this information, spokesman James Henderson says he doesn’t believe the method of delivery should be mandatory.

“Our menu is large,’’ he told the Star. To expand it more to add in every item’s calorie and sodium breakdown “is not a plus for our guests.’’

He believes most people who go into the Keg have already done their homework about what they’re going to order, and the restaurant doesn’t “have to have it put in their face.’’

He supports British Columbia’s voluntary Informed Dining program, in which participating restaurants supply extensive nutritional information in some other format, such as an appendix to the menu, a brochure or separate nutritional menu.

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